HOSPITALS AMONG AREAS TO BE GIVEN PRIORITY TO RESOLVE CONNECTIVITY ISSUES - FAHMI

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 26 (Bernama) -- Hospitals will be one of the seven areas to be given priority by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) on matters related to resolving connectivity issues.

Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said this is due to government hospitals still facing the problem of in-building coverage for mobile phone usage and the lack of provision of 5G technology infrastructure that can be adapted to the use of medical applications.

"In my (Lembah Pantai parliamentary) constituency, for example, the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (PPUM)… certain blocks or floors and even wards, have Internet problems. The same with the Serdang Hospital, so we want to resolve this basic issue.

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"In addition, we want to ensure 5G infrastructure provision in hospitals that can be adapted to the use of medical applications,” he told reporters after attending the Malaysia International Healthcare (MIH) Megatrends collaborative announcement session in conjunction with the MIH Megatrends 2024 Convention here today.

As such, he described the MCMC and the ministry's attendance at the convention as timely for highlighting the importance of connectivity in the health sector, especially for several applications.

"We see at the MIH Megatrends here, some applications use the Holo Lens, enabling specialist doctors to study the best way to overcome health or medical issues through screening or imaging that had been collected, such as the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging).

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"We also see some companies, like TM One, which have started using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to assist hospitals with the process of confirming appointments. This is fairly new and yet to be widely implemented,” he said.

As such, he hopes more hospitals, be it private or public, will study and adopt applications and technologies that can be used with 5G speed.

In addition, Fahmi said Malaysia's 5G network had shown excellent performance consistently with the country's median 5G download speed of 451.79Mbps, faster than Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines.

According to him, Malaysia's 5G network achieved the highest consistency score globally for the fourth quarter of 2023 (4Q2023) at 97.3 per cent.

"The 5G median download speed also increased significantly by 20 per cent in the third quarter of 2023, reaching 203.04Mbps compared to 168.27Mbps in the third quarter of 2022,” he said.

Also present at the ceremony were Communications Ministry secretary-general Datuk Mohamad Fauzi Md Isa and MCMC chairman Tan Sri Mohamad Salim Fateh Din.

 -- BERNAMA